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Waking up is hard to do, but it's easier with NPR's Morning Edition. Hosts Renée Montagne and Steve Inskeep bring the day's stories and news to radio listeners on the go. Morning Edition provides news in context, airs thoughtful ideas and commentary, and reviews important new music, books, and events in the arts. All with voices and sounds that invite listeners to experience the stories. Morning Edition, it's a world of ideas tailored to fit into your busy life.

Much of Mindy Kaling's humor is rooted in something that might seem unfeasible: using logic to explore American culture. But it works — and works well — because Kaling uses a type of circular logic that's all her own. Just consider this recent Tweet: "Can everyone buy my book please? I wanna quit the business and homeschool my kids real weird."

Italy needs the backing of Europe's bailout fund. But Italy's a huge economy — much, much bigger than Greece, Portugal, and Ireland combined. And the Europeans don't want to put enough money into their bailout fund to back Italy.

So they're getting creative.

The rest of Europe is likely offer investors insurance that will pay back the first 20 percent of any losses on new Italian bonds.

A baseball fan named David Huyette used a word you don't hear so much. The word was honorable. Mr. Huyette ended up holding the homerun ball that won Game 6 of the World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals. It could've been worth thousands, but Mr. Huyette returned the historic ball. He said it was the honorable thing to do. And he was rewarded with another baseball, an autographed bat and tickets to Game 7 of the World Series. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

At 10 p.m. on Monday, NBC anchor Brian Williams will do something that hasn't been done in nearly 20 years: launch a new network TV newsmagazine.

Hosted live from NBC's Rockefeller Center headquarters — thus the name, Rock Center — it's an ambitious attempt to showcase both Williams' serious news skills and his signature dry wit. And if it's going to succeed, he and NBC may have to reinvent the newsmagazine for a new age.

ARI SHAPIRO, host: Good morning, I'm Ari Shapiro. She was an Occupy Wall Streeter in tears from pepper spray. He was a volunteer medic who rushed to her side. Their eyes met, and the energy between them felt like a show of excessive force. The cooing new couple told the New York Daily News, nothing strengthens a relationship like a chemical agent. The police officer who fired the pepper spray was stripped of ten days vacation. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

"What if" — two words that ignite the plot of Roland Emmerich's new movie Anonymous, which conjures up an Elizabethan England rife with dark motivations, political maneuverings and bold conspiracy, and dares to imagine a different identity for the world's most celebrated playwright. John Orloff wrote the screenplay for the movie, which starts with the premise that Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare.

On Halloween 70 years ago, an iconic American monument was completed — Mount Rushmore. It took 14 years of blasting and chiseling granite to finish the work. And chief stone carver Luigi Del Bianco, an Italian immigrant, was there for most of them. Del Bianco was responsible for many of the finer details in Lincoln's face.

Del Bianco's daughter Gloria and her nephew, Lou, recently sat down at StoryCorps to share their memories of him and the work he did. The Mount Rushmore project began in 1927, when Del Bianco was 35. And it ended 14 years later.

"Jack the Cat" became an Internet sensation when he disappeared in baggage claim at New York's Kennedy airport. Two months later, American Airlines says, Jack has resurfaced at customs. A Jack Russell terrier named Petey traveled a bit farther: from Tennessee to Detroit — nearly 600 miles.

A wedding video shows a couple pouring two bottles of sand into one to represent their union. Then a lot more sand arrives as a full-fledged Arizona sandstorm blasts through, turning the scene dusty red.

Dwayne Stenstrom is a professor of American history. His office is lined with towers of obscure books and poetry on the walls. There's even a copy of the Declaration of Independence in a binder.

He teaches this document like many other professors, beginning with, "We hold these truths to be self evident." But he stops on another phrase — "the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages."

Protestors in Oakland, California gathered again in front of City Hall. Oakland's Occupy Wall Street last night was much more peaceful than the night before, when police used tear gas and non-lethal bullets to disperse the crowd. The confrontation left one protester hospitalized and it left allegations of excessive police force under investigation. NPR's Carrie Kahn reports.

Manhattan violinist Martin Stoner, 60, sued the nonprofit Young Concert Artists after it barred him from a contest based on age restrictions. When his ageism suit was thrown out, reports the New York Daily News, Stoner moved to have the 88-year-old judge replaced, saying the judge isn't qualified — because he's too old.

An unnamed actress is suing Amazon for more than a million dollars for revealing her age on the Amazon-owned Internet Movie Database, or IMDB. The lawsuit says the actress is many years older than she looks, and that being "perceived to be over the hill" will hurt her career.

The European Union is facing the worst crisis in its history and it has to the potential to affect us all. The meltdown in Greece could eventually imperil the entire global financial system. Today in Brussels, Europe's leaders will make another attempt at finalizing a eurozone survival plan. But time is short and the stakes could not be higher. The key players have big national issues to worry about.

Consumer Reports has come out with its ranking of car reliability. Toyota's Scion brand topped the list. Luxury carmaker Jaguar was at the bottom. Chrysler was rated most improved. NPR's Sonari Glinton has more.

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne with news of an unusual winning entry in Houston's annual Caesar salad competition. Best Presentation went to a Caesar salad cotton candy. As the Houston Press reports, the cotton candy was spun onto a cone made of romaine lettuce. Shredded parmesan cheese and black pepper were woven into the candy's pink fibers. It's not the most surprising entry. Last year's event included Caesar salad cupcakes and Caesar sorbet. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Here's one way to get rid of an invasive species - eat it. The snakehead fish arrived in Washington almost a decade ago. It's a scary looking marine predator that can even slither over land. In Asia, snakeheads are a delicacy, so tonight in Maryland a group of celebrity chefs will prepare the fish to appeal to American palates. One chef deep fries snakehead nuggets for a dish he calls frankenfish tacos. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.